In the sweltering midday heat west of Gaza City , Amina Abu Awda presses a damp cloth against her husband's arms as he lies motionless inside their cramped tent .
The fabric clings to his skin for a moment of relief before quickly drying in the stifling air. His chronic skin condition, once manageable, has deteriorated sharply in recent days as temperatures have risen and there has been no electricity to run fans.
The couple's shelter, like thousands of others across displacement camps in Gaza , is made of thin nylon sheets stretched over fragile frames. By midday, it offers no shade, only heat trapped inside like an oven, with electricity fully cut and no functioning fan or cooling device available.
"There is nothing left to ease my husband's suffering," the 49-year-old mother of six told The New Arab. "He used to need a cool environment to keep his condition stable, but now we live inside a closed nylon tent. By noon, it turns into an oven."
As she tries to fan him with a piece of cardboard, she says his condition is worsening.
"There is redness, sores, and constant inflammation from sweat and heat. He cannot sleep. Sometimes he stays awake all night because of the itching and suffocating temperature," she explained.
Since the outbreak of Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, Amina's family has been displaced multiple times before settling in an informal coastal encampment.
"The sick are crushed here more than the healthy," she described.
Across the Gaza Strip , hundreds of thousands of displaced people are now entering another harsh summer inside makeshift tents. The structures, assembled from nylon and fabric scraps, absorb heat throughout the day but offer no insulation against it. Electricity, clean water, and ventilation systems are largely absent from most camps scattered across devastated territory. Heat, illness, and the collapse of basic care In a crowded camp west of Khan Younis, 60-year-old Mahmoud al-Deiri sits outside his tent on a broken plastic chair from early morning until sunset.
"Staying inside during the day has become impossible as the temperature inside the tent rises beyond endurance," he told TNA .
Al-Deiri, who suffers from chronic respiratory problems, describes the summer months as a daily struggle for survival.
"At night, we try to sleep, but the heat stays trapped inside the tent. During the day, we escape outside, only to face dust, insects, and overcrowding," he said.
He added that his wife has fainted several times in recent days due to extreme heat and dehydration.
The family, already struggling with poverty and displacement, cannot afford medication or any cooling alternatives. Water, he noted, is tightly rationed.
"The water we receive is barely enough to drink […] How can we use it to cool ourselves or relieve the heat?" he described.
Similar scenes are repeated across northern Gaza's displacement camps, where children appear among the most affected.
Many spend their days pouring water over their heads or gathering around public water tanks in search of relief, while others remain confined inside tents that offer no escape from the heat.
In Gaza City, 12-year-old Yousef Mohammed moves through the cramped tent his family now calls home, trying to help his mother with small tasks he is not really old enough to carry.
He fetches water when it is available, passes out food, and looks after his younger sister while the heat builds inside the fabric walls that barely hold them together.
"At night, sleep rarely comes easily. The air inside the tent stays heavy and warm long after darkness falls, and the children wake up repeatedly, crying from the heat and discomfort," he told TNA . "My little sister keeps waking up crying […] Sometimes I wet her shirt with water so she can calm down and sleep for a while."
The days feel like an endless cycle of waiting in water lines, Yousef describes, and then returning to a suffocating tent to watch his mother struggle to keep the family going without electricity or proper ventilation. A humanitarian system under extreme strain Humanitarian conditions in the camps have deteriorated further as displacement continues and basic infrastructure collapses.
Medical staff in Gaza warned that heat-related illnesses, dehydration, and skin infections are rising sharply, particularly among children, elderly people, and those with chronic diseases living in overcrowded and poorly ventilated shelters.
Doctors said they are already seeing increasing cases of heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, while limited medical supplies and damaged health facilities restrict their ability to respond effectively.
Ismail al-Thawabta, director-general of the Government Media Office in Gaza , told TNA that the current heatwave has deepened an already severe humanitarian crisis inside displacement camps across the Strip.
"The vast majority of tents are unfit for human habitation, lacking even the most basic health or environmental protection. These tents do not provide any real shelter," he said. "They are exposed to heat, cold, rain, and dust without protection."
According to al-Thawabta, the combination of extreme temperatures, water shortages, and the collapse of the healthcare system is accelerating the spread of disease, exhaustion, and dehydration.